For my birthday yesterday, I took a proper vacation day and hung out at home: no trips to Mayo, no family visits...okay, I did check work email - twice - but only very briefly. And I did laundry, and dishes, and I vacuumed...but it was still a vacation day: it was Mine.

I was off Thursday and Friday last week, too, but that was a snowy drive to Mom's, followed by more driving, stress, and family discussion. My hatred of our health insurance system deepens with every new med prescribed to Mom: how could a sick person without a helper ever predict the true financial burden of a treatment? It looks like the new meds will be fully covered, rather than $1000-$1500/week...but we won't feel entirely certain until we see a bill where the balance due is zero.

Anyway. Sunday was Happy Seed Catalog Day, an informal spring-fever gathering in the basement library at Boerner Botanical Gardens. My friends gave me birthday gifts while I was there: a lovely mug from...a local potter whose website link is buried in the work email somewhere, a curved plaque depicting a scene from this Vaphio cup, and a reproduction of this double inkwell.

My friends are cool, and know my tastes well. After a pleasant day browsing and chatting at the library, we went to "surly waiter" Mexican restaurant; I had seafood in a tequila cream sauce.

Today it was back to work, sort of: an all-day offsite meeting. We spent much of the day listening to the usual managerial glossy optimism about the latest set of fuzzy goals (you know: "working smarter"). But we did have two longer breaks to actually talk to people we rarely see. I had actual useful conversations on two long-standing issues, and I made a new acquaintance on the test team - we agreed to be each others' contacts for questions. So, that was good.

Tonight, I call Mom to see how the new meds are going. I hear she caught a cold - that is unfortunate.Then, some therapy/experiment cooking, to feed me for the rest of the week.